Retaking Sagnius IV: The War Above the Land
by ChibiPotatoes
Summary: Sakura Markow of White Tiger Flight leads the air war, for the success of the land campaign, White Tiger and the Valhallan airforce must maintain air superiorty no matter the cost. On Hold... Files lost in computer transfer...
1. Prologue: The Eagles Above

The Eagles Above

Prologue

Sakura Markow gazed to and fro from the cockpit of her lightning fighter, "White Tiger flight, this is White Tiger leader, turn 40 degrees east on my mark." "Copy leader," said her top wing mate, White Tiger 34, Vanessa Espere. "Awaiting further orders ma'am." Responded her 5 o'clock wingman, White Tiger 34A, Johnatan Fursose. "Operations this is White Tiger 33, we're heading home. 3…2…1 mark!" The three fighters lurched to the right, heading back home, Masost MAB east. "White Tiger Flight, we're reading 4 bogeys, they're headed right for your formation!" Sakura looked at her radar, "Confirmed, Operations, permeation to engage." "Clear," Sakura flipped her frequency, "You heard 'em guys, let's go get some kills." Johnatan, a new recruit screamed into the mic, "Woohoo!" Vanessa sat quietly and said, "Just a few more kills to add to my career…" At the speed White Tiger Flight was moving, Sakura could feel the Gs pushing her into her seat, she took her brace position she had learned in the Academy back on Valhalla. "We're coming in on those bats!" Sakura said over the rush of their turbofans. "Heh, got you, you bastard." Sakura said as she heard her targeter, _Target Lock, Target Lock._ She loosed off a missile, as they passed each other, the bats were locusts, painted in Death Falcons colors, blue and gold. One of the bats exploded in a hailstorm of debris, another took a square hit from lascannon fire and then began to spin down into the snow, Vanessa, her 14th kill total. Johnatan fired off a few shots, all missed, "Save your ammo until you have a lock soldier!" Vanessa yelled to him through the vox, "Cut the chatter, those two bats are coming back around!" Vanessa pulled a sharp inverted turn to face the threat, Sakura followed suit, they both fired a missile, a bat was firing its cannons at who knew what, but it blew into pieces along with the other, "I've got trouble guys!" Sakura heard Johnatan say. "Can you hold her?" Sakura asked, "I think so." They all fell back into formation, Vanessa looked over at 34A, "34A, your trailing thick black smoke, are your readings correct?" "-Think-Can-Hold" They heard him say, "For Emperor's sake eject! Eject!" Sakura yelled at him, _C'mon, get out of there, get out of there, I want to see a 'chute._ Sakura thought to herself. The canopy of the fighter came off and they saw a white chute flutter open, "Operations, this is White Tiger 33, we've lost a bird over the Astorina mountains, he has ejected, requesting rescue mission." "Permission granted, a flight of Valkyries is lifting off as we speak."

Sakura hopped out of the canopy and took off her helmet, letting her short, lightly colored, hair flow; it was high in the back and became lower to her chin at an angle. She walked over to Vanessa, who liked her hair in a pony-tail instead of letting it tangle in her equipment, "15 kills, nice work as usual," Sakura said to Vanessa as they walked to the barracks, "Well, you still beat me by 3." Sakura smiled, "Well, nothing like hard work." They entered the mess hall where they were greeted by the rest of White Tiger Flight, 35, 36, 36A, 37, 38, and 38A. "Hey you two, how was your joy ride?" asked 35, Tara Markov, the leader of White Tiger flight 35, 16 kills total. 36 ran over and shook Sakura's hand, "Do you remember me?" Sakura hugged him, "Of course." Darrow Getterang, 16 kills total, a replacement of the former 36 who was lost two days ago. "18 kills, eh, Sakura! It looks like you finally beat me," Darrow said in congratulations. "Nothing works better for me than the Lightning!" she said as she raised a glass of joiliq into the air. "To White Tiger flight and our victory of the air war to retake Sagnius IV from the chaos scum!"


	2. Chapter 1: The Fliers

Fliers Above Sagnius IV

Chapter 1

"Morning Vanessa," Sakura said, "You're still going to take a shower? Don't you remember what Operations said, no hot water before 08.00." Vanessa nodded her head, "Yeah, I still take it anyway it wakes me up." Sakura shrugged, "Whatever, I just take my showers before lights out." "I'll keep that in mind," Vanessa said as she went into the women's locker room. Sakura walked out onto the runway and into the hanger next door. She looked at the dusty PDF standard Wolfcubs and Cyclones, "I wonder if these are even going to be used, we're going to need every aircraft we've got." She walked out again and looked out at the Marauders that had nets tightly draped over them. She went into the infirmary to see Johnatan he had received a few injuries when he hit the trees. "You alright?" Sakura asked him. He nodded and gave her a salute. "You're lucky you're alive." Darrow walked in, "Sakura, gather your flight, we have a mission." Sakura pat John's shoulder heartily, "You'll be back in the air soon, I promise."

"Hey Visily, I hadn't seen you since Marauder training back home on Valhalla!" Visily Sloarr looked behind him; it was his old buddy from the academy, Alicia Marovan. She walked over and pat his back, "So how's my buddy been doing for these past years?" Visily shrugged, "Nothing really, just doing bombing runs over the archenemy." Alicia laughed, "Well, we're both in the same flight now since Winter Bird 3 went down; they stuck me and my crew in their place." Visily smiled, Alicia and her 'All Female Crew' of the Marauder Imperial Bomber, _The Emperor's Finest_, really did a lot of key ordeals to the success on Valhalla, 14 bombing runs they performed, and all were a success. "Welcome to Winter Bird flight 31." Visily said as he began to hop into the cockpit of his Marauder,_ Red Star_, "Alright guys, let's get this party started," Visily said to his crew, Nitaliya, front gunner, Macartan, rear gunner, Timothy, top turret, and Samantha, the bombardier. His flight, the Winter Birds Elite, was to bomb an archenemy base, a few kilometers north of Masost. Thanks to a small flight of Lightnings they found the base through small holes in the cloud cover. "Operations, this is Winter Bird 31, awaiting permission for take off." "Clear 31, once your escort the, White Tigers, are clear." "Yes Operations, beginning our taxiing run."

Sakura slipped her helmet on and tweaked the air-mix, perfect. "Let's get going guys; we can't keep these Marauders waiting." Her wing along with 35's, or Tara's, began lifting off from their mat pads, they were a few hundred feet off of the ground when they kicked in the throttle. Sakura gazed behind her, the Marauders were beginning their take off. "Keep your eyes open, we now know were a lot of those bats are coming from and they're within range of our airbase, if you got a bat on your 6 shake him off!" she heard all of her fighters confirm. Helena Quis flew in place of 36A, Johnatan in other words, she was a fairly new pilot, recruited a few weeks ago and she already had 8 kills, which Sakura thought was impressive. The White Tigers slowed down enough for the bombers to catch up, Sakura felt strangely vulnerable, at the altitude they were flying any bat could just swoop down and gun at the Marauders which were tempting targets. "Lead, I've got 12 contacts, 2,000 feet above us, shit they're bats." Vanessa said. "White Tiger 33 to Winter Bird 31, get your guns live we've got contacts." Sakura said as she flipped her switch up and put her finger on the missile trigger; she thought to herself 'Let's have some fun, shall we?'

Nitaliya moved her turret back and forth, slowly scanning the skies for the bats White Tiger 33 just warned them about, "Visily! I see them! 12 o'clock high!" She jostled her turret into position, she got a lock; the lead bat, a locust spun out of control and blew up in a fiery explosion, she saw the charred body of the locust pilot fly out and his parachute fluttered open; it was on fire. 'Wahoo! First kill on Sagnius!' she thought to herself. The skies began to fill with las fire from both the fighters, and the Bombers, "We're coming in on the target prepare ordnance…" Sam said as she primed the bombs in the belly of the aircraft. Visily struggled to keep the plane level as it shook from flak from below, he heard Sam curse, "What's wrong?" he asked, "The damn flak screwed up my lens, I can't see a damn thing." "What was your last calculation?" Sam thought, "4 kilometers-Wait! I should be dropping the warheads now!" She punched the button down, "Damn!" Visily heard Sam yell, "What is it?" Visily cried, "The button! It's stuck!" Sam ran to the bombing bay, and pulled a crowbar from the wall and began to wrench the hatch open, there was a large squeaking noise and they all yelled out, "What the hell was that?" Nitaliya asked from the front gun. "They're about to explode!" Sam yelled as she finally wrenched the door open and then the aircraft rose a few feet as their payload fell upon the victims below, "Ahh, there's nothing like the sound of whistling bombs." Visily heard Alicia say, "We better turn home guys, this airbase is leveled, and I'm up for some major celebrating!"

Everyone had went to the bar, The High Mount, right after they were cleared by Operations to wander around Visily sat with his crew at a table, they whooped and laughed at long past memories. He wasn't much of a drinker nor did he have such a great sense of humor. He looked around at the other crews and pilots of the recent victory. He saw a young pilot, a female, with her bright pink hair high at the back and long to her chin in the front, she was toying with a shot cup. She was leaning on one arm and she was flipping the cup up and down with one hand. 'She has good hand-eye coordination.' Visily thought as she watched her, "You have your eye on the White Tigers leader, Sakura, ehh?" He turned around and looked at Macartan, who was nudging him in his side. "Wait that was the person who led our escort?" Macartan nodded, "Jeez, she's a damn good pilot; she got half of the kills, 6 to be exact." Visily's eyebrow twitched, "6? In one sortie?" Macartan nodded as he turned back to his cup of sjira red.

Sakura finally put her cup down, Vanessa had gone out somewhere with 38A, Geren Suhra, part of her wondered where she went and part of her didn't. Helena was called out to Operations for some reason she couldn't remember. She reached for the bottle of amasec which sat in front of her. She poured herself a cup, the first she'd had since they began the celebration. 'Uhh, who would have expected that this celebration to be so dull when you have no soul to talk to.' She thought to herself, 'Yeah, it was a good day for me, but it sucks when you have no one to talk to about it.' Sakura saw a man from another table get up and begin to make his way to where she sat; she looked up from her cup. "Hey," ask the man, she didn't respond, 'Was this guy hitting on me, or was he just drunk?' "I said something; it'd be polite if you said something back." Apparently this guy was neither, "Hey, Sakura Markow, 33 of White Tiger Flight." She extended her hand and he took it and shook it gently, "Visily Soarr, the pilot of 31 of Winter Bird Flight." Sakura nodded and signaled him to sit down and offered him a cup of amasec which he accepted. "I hear you have 24 career kills, Sakura." Visily said as he took a sip, Sakura nodded, "I hear you've got 18 bombing runs, 13 successes not including our last sortie." Visily nodded, the two began to talk calmly, their past events and hopes.

Sakura and Visily sat at the at the table well past 23.00. Visily learned that Sakura's life was pretty hard. Her boyfriend was part of the Silver Lightning, the Valhallan equivalent to the Apostles, he was shot down and; a well confirmed KIA. "We were going t-to get married after his sortie, which he didn't know was his last." Sakura looked away, there was a tear slowly rolling down her left cheek. Visily wiped it off with his handkerchief, "It's alright, I'm sorry to hear that, but his death was what the Emperor wills, I have story to tell you." He pulled out a picture of a girl who was popping out of a Conqueror's hatch and handed it to her, "That's my sister, she was leading a convoy through a gorge on Valhalla, she never saw the Ork Rokkit coming. It hit the side armor, right below the side sponson, it turned the tank into a smoldering crater, she and her crew were killed instantly." Sakura gasped, they now knew at least someone had as bad as a life as the other.

Sakura woke the next morning with a little headache, probably too much to drink and the lack of sleep, it was 06.00, 7 hours of sleep. She walked into the hallway; Vanessa wasn't at the door of the locker like she usually was. "I wonder," She thought, she knocked on Vanessa's door, no answer, she opened the door it was unlocked. No one was in side. She walked a little further to Suhra's room, still no answer, she walked in using her lock pick. She walked in, the sheets for the bed were on the floor and it was a mess, there was a pile of clothes over in a corner, "He needs to learn how to clean." She said to herself, something was amiss though, she found a bright blue garment and picked it up, 'A BRA!" she thought to herself, she dropped it and fell over the lump that the sheets had made, or what she thought were the sheets. That's where she found both of them, naked and holding each other in a deep sleep, 'Damn, Vanessa, you went a little over board with the sjira red didn't you?' She got up and kicked the both of them, then Darrow ran in, "Operations need us now! Jeez, a little over exposed aren't they?" Sakura nodded, "Can you help me a bit?" Darrow nodded.


	3. Chapter 2: Dogfights

Dogfights

Chapter 2

The vox speakers blared out, "Scramble all fighters, scramble all fighters," Sakura ran out to her fighter secure on a mat pad, it was pretty short notice, some fitters and ground crew were scrambling in all directions, to the thunderbolts of Snow Fall, the lightings of the White Tigers and the Avalanche wing. She actually saw Vanessa trip on her way to the hanger where they were refitting her fighter which took a few shots from hell razors. Sakura gave a thumbs up to her head fitter, Lonitor Suek; he nodded and ran off to another fighter. She came off of the pad and turned on her vox and auspexs. "Operations, what's the meaning of this?" she asked, "White Tiger 33, we're reading 150 plus aircraft on what seems to be a bombing run on the land forces." Sakura punched in the throttle. "150 plus aircraft, all bombers, this should be easy!"

Visily ran out to the Marauder Destroyer, _Interceptor_, where his crew was waiting for him, he jumped in. "All engines are go, beginning taxi." 'It pays to be qualified for flying all four-engine aircraft. He led his flight in the air into an intercepting formation. Sam gazed at the auspex; the huge formation of bombers formed a large splotch of red, compared to the friendly fighters among them. "We have a visual, Holy Throne." Visily said as the large formation of tormentors came into view, "All Marauders report status." "This is 32, Four-A," "32A, all clear," "33, all lights green," "33A, awaiting, further instructions commander," Visily sped up _Interceptor _beside Sakura's lightning and looked over to her, she looked back, they both made the sign of the aquila to each other and nodded. Visily gazed at the lead bomber wing, the bombers began cracking bolter shots at them. Visily flipped up the gun switch, "Let's get some kills."

Sakura made a head on attack into the bombers; she gazed over at the _Interceptor_, which disappeared in to the fray. She trained her sights onto a hell talon and fired a few bursts of las at it; the hell talon lost a wing and spun into a nearby tormentor. She gazed at the two burning aircraft; she picked up another hell talon from the same formation as the other. Sakura dived and came up from beneath it, and fired a burst at it; the shot ignited the explosives in the bombing bay. She saw Vanessa zoom by chasing down a hell talon which was attempting to shake her off. Tara flew up in front of Sakura and destroyed a tormentor above them. The lead thunderbolt of Snow Fall wing, Malersin Frotonya, destroyed an Onero sized bomber. Sakura trained her sights on one of the Onero bombers and laughed as she watched explode in flames.

Visily and his group fell on top of a formation of tormenters, autocannons blazing. As they passed by, he heard the top turret and rear open up behind him. He pulled an inverted turn to come back at the formation, tracers flew past his cockpit, 'Those shots were las!' he thought he looked up, a formation of 30 hell razors were descending on top of the fight, "Bats! Bats! Bats! Coming in vertically upon us watch yourself!" he yelled through the vox as he dodged one of the razors. 'Shit! My aircraft aren't designed to take on fighters!' Visily thought to himself as he banked sharply left, he found another bomber, lock tone, fire. The bomber exploded shaking the aircraft beside it, "Visily! We've got three razors on our tail!" Visily was too concentrated on the fighters in front of him, "Scare them off! Fire the tail gun for thrones sake!" Macartan yelled back in frustration, "I've got no damn ammo!" Visily cursed and dove. "White Tigers I'm in need of assistance!" "Copy that Winter Bird 31."

Tara and Geren found 31 and began taking out the razors behind the Marauder. "Winter Bird, bank a sharp right." 31 did as he was told and the two swept in to take the aircraft down. Sakura flew in too to take down the last one. Her warning beacons began to light up, low fuel. She was pretty sure the others were about the same. "Alright guys, lets head home to refuel and refit." They all broke off combat and followed her in. They've done their job well, now it was the boys and girls from Astorina MAB west to finish them off.

Sakura hopped down and yelled, "Refuel and refit! Now!" She saw them scramble back and forth, yelling orders and slang. She saw Visily's bird, the _Interceptor_ coming in wobbly and shaky. She yelled at them even though she knew they couldn't hear her, "Bring your cradle down! You're coming in too fast!" She ran in front of the aircraft and waved her hands back and forth, until Vanessa tackled her, "Get down or you'll be run over!" The Marauder zoomed past over their heads, "Visily!"

Visily struggled to pull the cradle down, "Shit," he said as he gave up and grabbed the stick. "Brace for emergency landing!" he brought in the aircraft and began to slow down their speed, which he knew was already to late. He felt the aircraft scrape against the hard rockcrete. It bounced up and down and the Gs destroyed the canopy, shattering the glass, he screamed in pain as a sharp piece of glass cut his shoulder, he took a quick gaze over and he swore he saw the white of his bone when the aircraft squealed to a stop. They climbed out with dazed looks about them, the Marauder was a wreck behind them, and they were all bloody, with either their own or a comrades blood. Visily walked over, clasping his shoulder, when he took it off, his hand was covered in blood. Macartan was shivering, his face covered in blood. Nitaliya was holding Tim up, who seemed to be unconscious, and Sam was clutching her side, blood trickling between her fingers. Sakura ran over, "We need a medicae over here!" She looked at Visily and he gave her a weak smile.

Visily winced as they bandaged the wound on his shoulder, he heard Sam and Macartan wouldn't be flying for a good while, the medic pat his back and Visily was allowed to walk around. He walked out to the hanger to gaze at the _Interceptor_, it was a terrible mess, he rubbed its nose, "Thanks, you saved our lives." He didn't notice one of the fitters standing by, "Well, she may have saved your life, but it'll take a long time before she's airworthy again." Visily nodded and shook his hand, "Thanks for working on her though." The fitter nodded and walked over to get a rotator from his toolbox. Visily walked out so that the cool winter air could blow against his face, Sakura was standing beside him, he looked over and they both smiled. It felt almost romantic to him seeing Sakura's hair flow in the wind and her silver-blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight, "Lunch?" she asked as she grabbed him by the arm, apparently he didn't have a choice.

Sakura sat Visily down in the barracks at an empty table between the hustle and bustle of the others clattering their trays, yelling at each other, etc. The sat at a quiet table off to the corner, "I was worried about you," she said as she handed him a piece of dry bread and a cup of joiliq, "I could probably have guessed that myself, Sakura," He said as he took a sip, "For throne's sake, you were almost my nose decoration!" They laughed, "How long before you're flying again?" she asked as she took a sip from her cup, "Maybe a day or two, but Sam and Macartan are going to be out for a few weeks." The room grew quiet as they heard the distant chatter of hydra platforms, the both of them ran out, they saw green tracers in the sky along with formations of locusts and hell razors, Visily slapped her on her back, "Go get'em Tiger."


	4. Chapter 3: Search and Rescue

Search and Rescue

Chapter 3

Visily gazed at the plains below, they were completely empty. It had been a few months since Visily had been sent to the hospital. Macartan was replaced by a young girl named Lena, and Sam was replaced by this former Lightning pilot named Johnatan. He's seen John in the Marauder sims and he seems to be good at bombing the shit out of things. He let out a big sigh, 'Aren't there supposed to be land carriers out here?' he asked himself as the clouds began to clear up. He never realized what was below him, until the flak began to shake his formation, "Where's it coming from?" He asked, "I don't know, Visily, I can't see the muzzle flash!" He heard Alicia say over the vox line, "Shit," Visily heard her say, "Engine one down, rudder 2 lost control. This is 32, we're going down, repeat, we're going down." Visily looked over to his right, and he saw his wing mate descend with a smoking engine and burning tail. He angrily yelled into his radio, "Winter Bird flight, on me." "Winter Bird 31, disengage, I repeat, dis.." he turned off the Operations' frequency, war has its costs. He flew in low and level, and scanned the flat, dreary landscape. Then he saw it, a huge land carrier, painted white and flak was leaving its cannons on the side of the huge moving vessel. "Alright guys, come in low and hot, our target, that carrier. "Comin' in hot." Yes sir!" "For the Emperor!" Visily held the stick tight, his eyes were fixed on the target in front. He saw the aircraft to his right, _Murderer_, burst into flames as a flak shell hit her payload. His canopy cracked as a shell exploded centimeters in front of him, 'That was close,' he thought. He gazed to his left at the remaining formation and he saw his right hand girl, Lisah Zamarov, keel over and a huge puddle of blood appear on the canopy. The _Hopeful_ began to dip and spin out of control, acting as a huge bomb and crashing into the side of the carrier at an amazing speed. Visily and the remaining bomber pulled out of their approach as the carrier exploded in a giant mushroom cloud, Lisah's plane must have hit the weapons cache. "Alright, let's head home guys." Visily lost a lot of good comrades and pilots, but it was surely worth the loss. One carrier down, a lot less aircraft to put up with.

Alicia crawled across the snow. She rolled over and clutched her bolt pistol, she yelled out in pain as the biting, cold, wind blew across her face. Now she wished that she hadn't left her helmet back at the wreckage. "Oh Emperor, have mercy," she thought to herself as she pulled a piece of metal out of her shoulder and yelled out. 'Just a few more kilometers up the mountain.' She said as she looked back at the flaming wreckage of her Marauder behind her. She had stalled the plane's descent long enough for her crew to bail out, but she had no idea were the rest of them were. Alicia rubbed her gloved hand across her forehead, her white-gray glove turned into a deadly looking red. As she dragged herself up the mountain even more, she felt a hand on her unwounded shoulder. "Alicia, are you alright?" asked the voice of her top turret gunner, Marahian Nonvaner, a Krieg flier and her best friend. Marahian flipped Alicia over and stroked Alicia's hair back, "Oh Throne of the Emperor," She gasped, Alicia hadn't realized the large blood gushing wound running across her forehead and continuing into her scalp. Marahian took off her long-sleeved field sweater and wrapped it around her head in a makeshift field bandage, Mara slung Alicia's arm around her shoulder, "C'mon we've got to get you some serious medical attention.

Visily strode back and forth in the empty briefing room his eye brow was furrowed in deep concentration. He stopped and leaned against the table. Visily jumped as he felt a hand rest on his, "Oh Throne, God Sakura, you scared me." Sakura could sense how tense he was, just by the vibes she was receiving from him. She's had the power to tell how someone feels for as long as she could remember, but never really put it to good use until she joined the air corp. "Calm down Visily, they've already sent out the second search party." She said as she took off her helmet, "I've personally flown a Valkyrie out there and found something you might want to see." She handed him a black and white photograph of a crashed Marauder. Visily tapped the photograph, "Heh, this is the _Emperor's Finest_, Alicia Marovan's aircraft." He sat down and threw the folders off of the table and rubbed his hand across his head in frustration. Sakura sat beside him and held his hand, "We'll find them, I promise."

Alicia had long since fallen unconscious, and Mara had dragged her all the way to a nearby abandoned church. She draped a thermal blanket over Alicia's body and sat in silence, praying to the Emperor. She jumped at the noise of an opening door. She turned to the entrance, her K-SMG solid slug tightly clasped in her hands. Surprisingly to her, the entrance was closed; Mara stepped back, and cocked her weapon. A hooded figure, with his back to her, rose from behind the last pew and turned. He raised his arms in fear as he saw Mara with her gun pointed straight at him, "Don't shoot, please!" he yelled out as he took his hood off, he was a young priest. Mara sighed as se lowered her gun, "You scared me father," Mara said as she sat down and munched on a cracker. Father walked over and sat beside her, "Are you trooper, my daughter?" He asked, Mara looked at him, "I'm a flier, Father…" "Macroth," "I see you have an injured comrade, follow me." Mara picked Alicia up and saw Macroth open a secret door beneath the last pew. "C'mon, it's my secret home."

Junior Officer Gwen Tenison gazed down at the mountains at what seemed to be an abandoned church she brought the Valkyrie down near the dreary building she and her co-pilot, Marie Mayer, jumped down and flipped their visors up, "Follow me," Gwen said while clutching an M4B solid slug, and Marie who was carrying her favored street sweeper shotgun. They opened the door of the church; so far there weren't any sign of life until Gwen stumbled on a thermal blanket, Imperial issue. She threw it down and raised her gun even higher after seeing the blood on the floor, she heard a door open and turned a heretic was at the door, the two pilots opened fire and killed him instantly. Aroused by the gunfire, Mara, Macroth, and Alicia came out of their hiding spot, Gwen yelled out, "Hurry you tree, it's not zafe to zstay here any more!"


	5. Chapter 4: Recovery to Fight

**Sorry I hadn't updated in a while:(. I completely forgot about my stories:( Well this is all I've got, but please enjoy.**

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Recovery to Fight

Chapter 4

Gwen hit the boosters as the aircraft lifted up just a few hundred feet. Gwen looked back and saw three locusts behind her. "Hold on back zer!" she said as she tightly banked and the three passengers in the rear fell as they felt the craft turn. Macroth punched a button to open the rear door, and armed the multi-laser in the rear, "Father, I didn't know you could use a weapon!" Macroth began pounding away at the locusts, one fell out of the sky, "I forgot to tell you, my daughters, I was once a Valkyrie door gunner." A locust dropped in from the clouds and sprayed cannon fire at the escaping Imperial transport. Gwen screamed as cannon shots hit her arm and leg, Marie yelled out over the sounds of gunfire, "Hold on Gwen! We're almost there!" Astorina MAB west was in sight, but they started to see and hear hydra flak fire, and it wasn't from the airbase. Gwen looked down through a hole in the bottom of the Valkyrie; the land army was providing air cover. Gwen squinted as she felt blood running down her forehead, the runway was just a few hundred yards away. Gwen felt the aircraft touch down and she fell unconscious.

'Gwen, Gwen, get up Gwen.' Gwen opened an eye, here commander, Sakura Markow was standing over her, "Gwen, get up," Gwen started to put her clothing on when Sakura exited the room, "Vanessa, get up," Gwen heard Sakura say down the hall, "Helena, get up," It seemed that Sakura was arousing everyone. They all met in the hallway, some were still in their pajamas, others were dressed, and some were fresh from the gym area. It was a hodge podge of pilots, Thunderbolt, Lightning, Valkyrie, and Vulture pilots. They all stood in a semi-circle around her, "You all have Marauder training right," They nodded, "Good, follow me." They all looked at each other, shrugged, and then followed. The pilots took their seats in the conference room, "We've found the last three carriers, and we're mustering all the Marauders we've got. Since our recent losses with the following pilots and gunners…" She said as she pointed at the super long list, Gwen could estimate over a hundred names. Gwen raised her hand, "What're ze casualties Commander?" "188 dead, 98 prisoners or lost in action," Sakura said, Vanessa raised her hand, "But Commander, we're only 16," Sakura nodded, "I know, but they said every bit helped. We leave in an hour, so get prepared, and pray to the Emperor."

Visily sat in the seat of his Marauder, he was the head of the Masost MAB east wing, 28 bombers, and 40 destroyers. Sakura was in the destroyer to his right, and a pilot named Gwen to his left. They were on standby. Visily took a drink from his water bottle, when they were ordered to move out, "All Marauders clear for take off," He said as he clipped is mask on to his face, "let's get going." All the engines started up at the same time, creating a huge racket. Visily's wing took off first, followed by the others, They soon met up with other flights from, Astorina MAB, Hasselsoft MAB, Crissen MAB, and Constantinople MAB, totaling to 598 aircraft, the largest bombing run in the Valhallan air corps' history.

Visily watched the skies and the plains, "It's quiet, too quiet," Sakura said. "I know," Visily responded, "Sam what've we got on auspecs?" "Nothing really, its all- No wait, Holy Shit!" Visily looked back, "What? What is it?" He looked at his own small auspec on his screen panel, "Oh Throne of the Emperor," "I know vat you mean," Gwen said. "Its like a whole bunch of engines started at the same time."


	6. Chapter 5: Near Victory

**Near Victory**

**Chapter 5**

Visily kept his eyes open for aircraft, "All gunners get ready, we're about to fly through hell!" Sam watched her scope to find the last carriers, 'according to my Intel they should be popping up.' It was oddly quiet at first, there was nothing. Visily heard Sakura yell, "Bats! Bats! 12 o'clock high!" then there was Gwen, "Bats! 2 o'clock low!" It was a hail of messages, "Bats! 7 o'clock high!" "Bats! 6 o'clock low" "Fighters! 9 o'clock low!" "Enemy aircraft! 6 o'clock high!" Visily held the Marauder steady, "You guys better get ready and fire up those guns," He said as the first fighter flew by. All of the guns in every formation lit up. The gunfire was so loud no one could hear each other. Visily flew straight and steady keeping his eyes forward. Suddenly the front turret of his marauder stopped firing, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Sam, check at the nose gun!" Sam acknowledged and ran to the front. She gasped as she saw Nitaliya's limp body. Blood covered the windows and guns. Sam turned Nitaliya's corpse over. Nitaliya was dead, three shots to the torso and one to the neck. Sam yelled back at Visily, "She's dead! Nitaliya is dead! We have no nose gunner!" Visily cursed, "Sam, get back to your station I think were almost near our bombing area!" She ran back to her spot and peeked through her scope, "three…two…one, bombs away, repeat bombs away." The two carriers exploded in a huge fireball, engulfing anything within a ten kilometer radius. "Our jobs not finished yet."

The fighters were swarming all over the bomber formation, even though the carriers were history it seemed as though these guys never had an end. Shots flew in all directions, with no nose gunner and an injured ball-turret gunner; it seemed as if he had no hope of returning home. All of a sudden about three formations of lightning fighters flew by gunning down at the locusts and hell talons that still remained in the sky. "Bomber leader this is 42 of Avalanche Lightning wing, we've come to escort you home." Visily heard loud cheering on the vox set as 6 thunderbolts flew by, "Bomber leader this is 24 of Snow Fall Thunderbolt wing we've come to assist." He smiled and turned to Sakura who smiled back at him.

They made it safely onto the ground, every person in the airbase ran to meet their comrades, cheering and laughter filled the air. People congratulated Visily on a job well done. But it all stopped when Colonel Lerno Chenkov stopped face to face with Visily. "We haven't won yet. We have an opportunity to strike at the heart of the enemies' air military forces. Gather your best pilots and crew Visily, it's a top secret operation." Visily looked at him as he was handed the folder, "What's this about colonel?" He shrugged, "Don't know, ask Captain Dominic." Visily watched him leave, Sakura and Alicia walked up beside him, "Who?" Sakura asked, "Dominic? Haven't seen him since training." Alicia said, Visily nodded, "Yeah, if it's him, it must be important."

Captain Dominic stood before a gathered group of pilots and crew to man 24 marauder bombers. They stood in a formed line before him. "The mission I'm asking you to volunteer for is very dangerous." He looked at them sternly, "Take a look at the person beside you, it's a good bet that in the next couple of weeks, you are one of them, will be dead. Anybody brave enough to except these terms, step forward." There was an odd quiet which followed his last sentence. Then, in unison, every man and woman on that line stepped forward. He smiled and led them out to the airfield. "I'm pretty sure you can take a marauder off of the ground in 1,200 feet, but I'm gonna teach you how to do it in 610 feet. Because at 611 feet you'll be dead."

Alicia walked with Sakura, Gwen, and Visily, "610 feet! Is he crazy! That's impossible!" Visily watched her, "It looks like it is," He said as they watched marauder, after marauder roll past the 610 foot marker. Captain Dominic threw his hat down, and said to one of his senior officers named Jack Stalin, "They just keep rolling past that damn line." Jack saluted, "Maybe this operation is a bad idea." Dominic looked at him, "No, get every person on the line." Everybody lined up on the runway's edge. Dominic looked back at his crew, "Let's show them how it's done." His marauder, _Whirling Dervish_, lined up along the end of the runway. The marauder took off at top speed lifting off six feet from the 610 marker. Every body jumped up and cheered as it flew off into the sky.

Dominic gathered everyone into the briefing room aboard the sea-based carrier _The Emperor's Fury_, "Well, now I can tell you where we're going. We're going to the chaos headquarters in Hive Herdin on an island across the Great Sea, and we're going to raze it." They cheered wildly, "The sea navy is going sneak us a couple of hundred miles from the coast of the island and we'll launch from there." Gwen, who'd been practicing her lingual skills and no longer had an accent, asked him, "That has never been done before, launching long-range bombers from sea-based carriers." Dominic nodded, and Sakura asked him, "Is it possible to land a marauder on a sea carrier?" Dominic responded to her, "That won't matter; once we're in the air, the carriers will return home." He turned to everybody, who had questioning looks on them, "Well, if the carriers head home, where will we land?" Visily asked. "On an island, Dreshdae, controlled by the 506th Valhallan, there is no airstrip there, so we'll have to perform an emergency landing when we get in." "But the half of the island we'll be landing on is overrun by cultists." Alicia said with doubt, "Yes, I know that. When you land, do your best to avoid capture. This air war is almost won, once this base is cleared out, its clear skies to victory."

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**Hey guys! Sorry, it took me so long to update, been way busy! Hope you enjoyed it**

**eldarranger :P**


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